California’s SB 37 grabbed every headline this year, and for good reason — a private right of action and $100,000-per-violation damages will do that. But firms that spent 2026 buttoning up their California disclosures may be missing the bigger story: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama, New York and New Jersey have all moved on attorney advertising in the same eighteen-month window, and none of them copied California’s playbook exactly.

For a firm marketing in one state, that’s a compliance checklist. For a multi-office or national firm, it’s five different rulebooks running at once — and “we’re SB 37 compliant” is not the same thing as “we’re compliant.”

1. Pennsylvania’s Quiet Reset

Effective November 14, 2024, Pennsylvania rewrote two rules that touch nearly every digital touchpoint a firm runs.

• Rule 7.2(k): every communication — not just formal ads — now needs the name and contact information of a responsible lawyer.
• Rule 7.3: text messages were added to the list of prohibited unsolicited solicitation channels, closing a gap SMS-based intake vendors had been operating in.
• One loosened requirement: the old two-year ad-retention mandate was repealed, a reminder that these updates aren’t uniformly stricter — they’re reorganized.

2. Alabama’s Overhaul Goes Further Than Most

Alabama’s rewrite, effective January 1, 2026, is one of the most detailed in the country. It bans actors from ads (non-speaking background roles excepted), requires testimonials to come from people with “actual knowledge and personal experience,” and extends ad-copy retention from a three-day submission window to six full years. Results claims must be “objectively verifiable” and can’t cherry-pick outcomes by excluding default judgments. Short-form ads like banners now follow a “one-click rule” for disclaimers — if a viewer can’t reach the required disclosure in one click, the ad doesn’t comply.

3. Ohio Shows Compliance Isn’t Always About Restriction

Not every 2026-era rule change tightens the screws. Ohio’s amended Rule 7.4, effective April 15, 2024, actually relaxed specialization claims, opening a state-certification pathway that lets attorneys describe themselves as specialists without outside-organization credentialing. It’s a useful corrective for firms assuming every rule update means more restriction and more risk — some of them open doors.

4. New York Is Coming, and It’s the Big One

New York proposed sweeping amendments to Rules 1.0 and 7.1 through 7.4 on December 30, 2025, aligning the state more closely with the ABA Model Rules. The proposal is still in public comment and unlikely to take effect before late 2026 or 2027 — but firms advertising into the New York market, which runs tens of millions of dollars a month in legal ad spend, should be building toward the Model Rules framework now rather than scrambling once it’s final.

5. Quick Reference: What’s Changed Where

6. Building One Framework Instead of Five

Chasing each state’s rulebook individually is how firms fall behind. The more durable approach is to build a marketing compliance framework around the strictest standard you’re subject to across every state where you advertise, then treat looser states as the floor, not the target. In practice, that means a few non-negotiables: a named, licensed responsible attorney on every asset — including social posts and chatbot conversations — result claims that are objectively verifiable and never phrased as a guarantee, testimonials vetted for genuine client experience, and a documented retention policy for ad copies that meets the longest window any state you operate in requires. Vendor contracts deserve the same scrutiny: in California and a growing number of other states, a firm is on the hook for what its lead-gen and marketing vendors publish on its behalf, not just what it publishes directly.

The Inherent Approach

We build compliance into the site and the campaign, not into a checklist someone reviews after launch — so a rule change in Alabama or a rule that finally lands in New York doesn’t mean rebuilding your marketing from scratch. If you’re not sure how your current advertising holds up across every state you practice in, let’s run a compliance audit together.